Joe O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

On Deputy Paul Donnelly's second point I have to be careful. Because the regulator is independent it is important for me, as Minister of State, not to question her decisions and for her to maintain her independence. What I would say is that religion is one of the grounds to get charitable status. How that is defined is reasonably loose. There are common law definitions which, when you read them, are quite open. In the broader scheme of things in terms of all the legislation and all the agencies connected to the State the regulator's role is relatively narrow in that it generally looks at corporate and financial governance. Some of the points Deputy Donnelly has raised would be of relevance to other Government agencies as well.

On the Deputy's question on whether the Bill would assist in that regard, the Bill is clarifying the duty, which was always there, in statute now that the regulator has an obligation to report to other Government agencies as well if it is seen that a law is broken that is relevant to another Government agency. That will help. The overall increased requirements for transparency will also help, particularly with those larger organisations in the higher scale of things and with those organisations that are registered as companies where we have little visibility of their accounts.

On this Bill, visibility will help and the Bill will provide reassurance. As I said, it was always an obligation anyway but the Bill provides reassurance that the regulator will bring it to the attention of other agencies if laws are broken. I would put into the mix that we are looking at hate crime legislation as well and that will be strengthened. That will not be done by me but by other Ministers.